The Balvenie extends single cask range

Single malt Scotch whisky The Balvenie has extended its single barrel portfolio with the release of a 15-Year-Old Sherry cask bottling.

The Balvenie Single Barrel Sherry Cask 15 Year Old joins the brand’s single cask range

Matured in a single oak Sherry butt and bottled at 47% abv, The Balvenie Single Barrel Sherry Cask 15 Year Old is described as having flavours of dried fruit, nuts and spice.

The Balvenie claims to be the only distillery that has an ongoing single cask release of a single age as a part of its range, a trend it began in 1993.

Only 650 bottles of The Balvenie single barrel can be drawn from each butt, while every bottle carries the number of the cask in which it was matured.

This latest release is the second bottling in The Balvenie’s Single Barrel range – following on from the Single Barrel First Fill 12 Year Old, which was released in early 2013.

A third single barrel release, drawn from a refill American oak barrel and aged 25 years, will complete the range towards the end of 2014.

“It’s 20 years since we took the bold step to release Single Barrel as part of our range – back then single cask whisky was pretty rare and largely reserved for the release of very old whiskies, but we opened it out to more whisky enthusiasts with the release of a single cask bottling that was much younger than usual,” said The Balvenie master distiller David Stewart.

“Two decades on, I’m very proud to be sharing our passion for the unique qualities of whisky drawn from a single cask of a single distillation.

“Due to the variances of a natural product such as wood, no two oak casks – even of the same type and filled with spirit from the same distillation – will produce an identical single malt.”

The Balvenie Single Barrel Sherry Cask 15 Year Old will be available from specialist retailers at an RRP of £79.99.